T4E BKE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



215 



bees clustering out. It is quite a task to 

 smoke in the bees of fifty colonies and 

 put on entrance screens during a hot July 

 evening. If the bees are in the hives, as 

 they should be, one person, with an as- 

 sistant to load, can easily close the en- 

 trances and take to the wagon fifty col- 

 onies after the bees quit flying and before 

 dark. If a hive should leak, the hole is 

 plugged and no attention paid to the bees 

 that are outside, unless they are in the 

 driver's way. Bits of comb, not too old, 

 make excellent plugs for leaky hives. It 

 is weil to prepare one or two extra col- 

 onies, to be substituted for any that might 

 leak badly. 



I have moved on springs and on straw. 

 Springs are preferable, being handier and 

 lighter. When straw is used it is well to 

 use a false rack on top of the straw. This 

 is made of light pieces the length of the 

 hay-rack, spaced at such distances that 

 the cleats of the bottom boards will just 

 catch over their edges. This false rack 

 is simply laid upon the straw and wired 

 to the end sticks of the hay-rack. It 

 holds the hives in place, and requires 

 much less straw, as no individual hive 

 can settle down into the straw. 



When bolster springs are used the haj'- 

 rack is easily transformed into a bee-rack 

 by nailing on extra boards lengthwise, 

 spaced so as to hold the hives in place by 

 the cleats on the bottom boards. The 

 covers are packed in the lower part of the 

 rack before the bees are loaded. 



Unless the roads are rough, or the night 

 is very warm, I drive as fast as the horses 

 will walk. 



Most of my frames are the Hoffman; 

 but the loose, hanging frames go all right 

 without any fastening or attention what- 

 ever. Terhaps if they rested on tin rab- 

 bets then might neefl fastening. I have 

 never seen a frame moved out of place by 

 handling. 



After frost has killed the flowers the 

 bees are moved home at once. The re- 

 turn trips are made during the day. No 

 screens are now used, as the weather is 

 cool. I brought them home last year 



without fastening the covers, as the pro- 

 polis held them firmly. Neither do I 

 find it necessary to fasten the covers 

 when hauling to an out-yard in the 

 spring; but care must be taken in load- 

 ing, that the covers of the different hives 

 do not bind or they may be broken loose. 



Owing to insufficient ventilation and 

 an extremely hot night the first load that 

 I hauled to fall pasture got "hot" when 

 about twelve miles away from home. 

 The)' were set off in a school-yard, the 

 entrances opened, and the journey was 

 not resumed until the next evening. 

 When the bees wedge themselves in the 

 entrance and begin to squeal, it is time to 

 unload and open the hives. Since using 

 the deep screens on top no trouble has 

 been experienced. The risk item has 

 grown less with each trip until it has be- 

 come practically nothing. 



In the picture used as a frontispiece the 

 fellow in the foreground is myself. The 

 little tent is where the extracting is done. 

 It is also my kitchen, parlor and bed- 

 room while I "batch" it when caring for 

 the bees. The picture shows onl^^ a por- 

 tion of the bee-yard. I had eighty col- 

 onies in that yard when the picture was 

 taken. Nearby is a small lake, where I 

 go fishing and boating when time permits. 



Tiiis season has been the flattest failure 

 that we have had since I have kept bees. 

 I have read of total failures, but this is 

 the first I have ever experienced, and I 

 have keep bees over fifteen years. I look 

 with more than usual anxiety to the 

 autumn flowers. 



The hive fastenings described in the 

 fore part of my article are somewhat ob- 

 jectionable, in that nails must be driven 

 into the hives. This year I expect to 

 make frames to hold several hives clamped 

 together, without fastening the individ- 

 ual hives. A bottom frame, so con- 

 structed that it will hold the bottom 

 boards in place and of proper length to 

 fit crosswise in a railroad car, will have 

 holes mortised in just below the corners 

 of each hive. T-shaped posts, formed by 

 nailing a y'z by 3-inch piece (top of the 



